DIY underlistings for leather wrap grips.

The following video outlines the process of creating your own underlistings for vintage leather wrap grips. Sometimes when you need to reshaft vintage irons the original grips are still usable while the underlistings are not. They either are glued to the old shafts or are disintegrating due to age. Since I could not find any underlistings on eBay I decided to create my own. 

This method allows for more than just the standard tapered shape of the grip. If you want you can even do a reverse tapering. Or maybe you just want to have the part under the right hand built up a bit.

For these old Hogan grips from the 1950’s I managed to reuse the end caps, the grip collars and the wraps themselves. I had to cut the collars with a knife but they will go back on the new shafts together with some black electricity tape of the same width.

Have fun!

Shaft Removal redone

This is an addendum to the ‘restoring irons’ series I did last year. Separating the head from the shaft can be a difficult task, and some of the older sets need a different treatment than the one described here.

While reshafting a set of Ben Hogan 1953 Precisions I found that the conventional way of removing the shafts did not work as expected. I had removed the shaft pins and torched the hosel until it was red hot. The head would not move at all. If this happens it means that the epoxy is not the reason that the head does not come loose. I could think of only two possible reasons.

The first assertion is that corrosion has formed a bond between the shaft and the head; not implausible after 58 years of use.

The second assertion is that the shafts have been hammered into a very tight hosel, thus forming a mechanical bond that simply can’t be broken by heat.

Either way, I knew I needed to resort to a different way of getting the shafts out of the clubheads. What I did was this:

1. Cut the shaft an inch above the ferrule.
2. Insert a solid metal rod into the shaft. The tighter it fits the better it will work.
3. Clamp the shaft (with the rod inside) in a vice and make sure that the shaft can’t twist.
4. Grab the head with two hands and try to turn it loose.
5. Once it gives in you can start to pull it off.

It turns out that the shaft tips weren’t abraded at all and that little or no epoxy had been used for these clubs. Epoxies weren’t very strong those days so I figure they just made sure that they also secured them with pins and the mechanical bond by hammering the shafts into a tight hosel.

 

 

As described above, you must put a rod inside the shaft before clamping it in a vice. If the rod is too small in diameter the shaft can break due to the twisting of the head.

This happened to me but fortunately I managed to fix it by removing the ferrule and repeating the process with a better fitting rod. (see below pics)…

 

Removing Rust

I got a set of irons (1957 MacGregor M85 Colokrom) for a bargain. These were in pretty bad condition. This iron was the worst. Lots of rust stains where the chrome was gone. I decided to try and remove the rust spots using a liquid remover.They came out better than expected. If I like these irons enough I might consider having them rechromed by the ironfactory at some time.

I really like how those colokrom copper inserts turned out. The pitching wedge (not pictured here) has a small circle of wear marks around the sweetspot. These have been played by an accomplished player. Feels good to give these irons a second life.

My first DIY custom built persimmon driver

Some time ago I bought a set of MacGregor persimmon (1,4 and 5) woods on eBay with the intention of rebuilding them.

By 'rebuilding' I mean:

• Replacing the shaft and putting on a new grip.
• Changing the lie angle.
• Changing the way the club sits at address (open, neutral or closed).
• Changing both dead weight and swing weight of the club.
• Refinishing the club so that it looks like it's never been hit.

I won’t describe the entire process in this post. Should you be interested in the steps involved, then please contact John Erickson. He has put together a very good document containing detailed step-by-step instructions. You can get it by sending him a small donation in return for his efforts in putting the document together.

For a first attempt I actually think I did a pretty good job. I did make some mistakes along the way (e.g. I accidently incinerated some wood next to the sole plate, and there also was an incident with the lead weights inside the cavity…) but I learned a great deal along the way.

Here is a photo impression of the rebuild:

Removing offset

I recently found out how to remove the offset on irons.

Offset means that the front edge (left side) of the hosel is in front of the leading edge of the club when looking down on it at address. It places the center of gravity further back, which 'helps' us to close the clubface in the impact zone.

Onset means that the front edge of the hosel is behind the leading edge of the club. The amount of offset or onset is calculated by measuring the distance between the front of the hosel and the leading edge.

Face progression is different in that it is defined as the distance between the center of the hosel and the leading edge. This can be both a positive or negative value.

If you strengthen the lofts on your irons you will typically increase the amount of offset because the hosels will be bent a bit. So when I heard that there was a way to remove the offset on a club I decided to give it a go.
Even though the process is fairly simple I found that it might take some time to get the hang of it. The longer the hosel of the club, the easier it will be to remove offset.

 

1. First you need to bend the loft of the club about 5 degrees weaker. This bend operation must be performed by placing the bending bar at the top of the hosel (where the shafts meets the hosel).
   
2. Then after that you need to perform a 'regular' bend operation, just above the clubhead. Bend the loft back to its original strength.
   
3. Now have a look and see if the amount of offset is less than before. You will probably have to repeat these steps a couple of times before you will get good results; but it will be well worth it in the end.

 

Here are the before and after pics of a Hogan pc5 3 iron:

Restoring Irons – 8: Lie Adjustments

In the last installment of this series on restoring irons I wrote about regripping clubs. When you’re done with that you may want to change the loft and/or lie of your irons.

Vintage irons usually have weaker loft compared to modern irons, so you may want to bend those a bit stronger. The lie angle, which is the angle between the shaft and the leading edge of the club head, may need to be changed as well depending on how flat or upright you want to swing the club. Forged irons can be bent more easily than cast irons. With cast irons the risk of breaking the hosel is far bigger and you probably will only be able to bend them 2 or 3 degrees tops.

In this post I will describe the process of bending the lie angles of my Hogan irons. I bent these clubs 7 degrees flat and I did it using a bending bar, a vice and protractor. Normally you would use a professional Loft and Lie machine for this purpose but since I don’t own one I decided to be creative. Using a dedicated machine is much easier and faster than securing the head in a vice, but if you are on a budget you can get similar results using my method.

 

Left to right: A professional loft and lie machine and a bending bar. (Golfsmith)

If you have a workbench with a vice then that’s great. I don’t have a workbench in my apartment so I opted to bolt the vice onto some pieces of wood.

 

Securing the heads

Securing the head in the vice is the tricky part. As you can see, I used 2 small metal plates to protect the club from damage. You need to find a way to secure it so that it won't move while bending. The best way is to start by clamping the top line and the leading edge in the vice and try to bend the hosel. If the head starts to twist in the vice it means that you didn't secure it in a way that resists the forces of the bending operation.

 

Bending the hosels

Don’t try to bend the clubs in one go, make multiple smaller bends until you feel that you’ve got it right. After that you probably need to measure and check the new lie angle. You can do this by setting the club with the leading edge flush to the ground and measuring the angle between the shaft and the floor with the protractor.

 

If you have the head secured It's also important to position the bending bar as low as possible (where the hosel meets the head) and bend it at that position. If you bend to far up the hosel you may run into problems later if you need to remove or replace shafts…

Restoring Irons

Here are the links to my posts about restoring vintage irons:

Part 1 - Materials and tools

Part 2 - Shaft Removal

Part 3 - Shaft Preparation

Part 4 - Head Preparation

Part 5 - Ferrules

Part 6 - Assembly

Part 7 - Grip Installation

Part 8 – Lie Adjustments

Enjoy!

Restoring Irons – 7: Grip Installation

As stated before I decided to put Griptec EZ-grips on my clubs. Since these aren't standard grips, I will also add links with information on installing other kinds of grips.

EZ-Grips

Some grips are easier to install than others. For this project I chose Griptec EZgrips because they are cheap and very easy to install. The look and feel is similar to Golf Pride Tour Wraps. To install them all you need to do is open the package and slide the grip on the shaft! In the beginning they will be much too wide for the shaft but within 24 hours the grips will shrink to fit. It beats me how it works exactly, all I know is that it’s some sort of chemical treatment and that it works great. The grips will feel very soft at first but after a few days they will firm up and feel like Tour Wraps. Tip: Remember to line up the text on the butt square to the clubface so they will look the same throughout the set.

Normal grips

To install grips you need to:

1. Measure the grip length.
   
2. Wind double-sided tape around the shaft and peel off the backing.
   
3. Place the grip in a vice so you can work with your hands free.
   
4. Cover the vent hole with a finger and pour grip solvent (or petrol) in the grip.
   
5. Cover the top, shake and then pour the solvent over the double-sided tape.
   
6. Install the grip as fast as you can (before tape gets sticky again.)
   
7. Straighten the grip and squeeze it a few times.
   
8. Set the club away to dry.

Here you can download some vids that show the entire process in detail. Courtesy of Golfsmith.com: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 4

Next up: Adjusting the lie angles. Enjoy!

Restoring Irons – 6: Assembly

Now that all preparation is complete we are ready to glue the shafts and the heads together.

Assumptions

• You have shafts with abraded tips.
• The ferrules are installed in the correct position.
• The heads are bored out to fit the shafts.

Preparation

First of all you should reserve a space where the clubs can be set upright (e.g. against a wall) to let the epoxy cure. Put some newspapers on the floor in case of epoxy spilling. After that, I suggest you prepare a workbench where you'll have all shafts and heads available, and sorted. You don't want to have to search for a certain shaft while you are applying the epoxy.Make sure that the shafts and the heads are clean and free of dust.As a surface to mix the epoxy on you can use a piece of plastic or alternatively just tape some pieces of duct tape (or masking tape) to the workbench.You also need a small stick with which you will apply the epoxy, and some tissues or cloth to wipe off excess epoxy from the club after installation. I like to put some tape on the hosels so the epoxy can’t ooze out of the pin holes. You can see this in the last picture.

Left: Epoxy hardener and resin.  Mid: The 2 parts before mixing.          Right: The parts mixed together.

Assembly

First we will be mixing the epoxy. Pour two equal parts onto the surface. Try not to use too much; you'll be surprised how little you need for a single club. Then mix the two parts with the stick until it's one solid color. Let the epoxy sit for a couple of minutes before applying it; this makes for a stronger bond later on.

1. Starting with the longest club, take the head and use the stick to cover the inside of the hosel with epoxy.
   
2. Take the shaft and cover the abraded portion of the tip with epoxy.
   
3. Gently work the shaft into the hosel using a rotating motion.
   
4. Remove any excess epoxy coming out of the hosel with the cloth/tissues.
   
5. With the head in your hand, tap the butt end of the shaft against the floor to make sure that the shaft is inserted all the way down.
   
6. Finally, in case the shafts are spine marked, rotate the shaft so that the spine is set at three o'clock. (At least make sure that the spine is in the same position for all the clubs.)
   
7. Set the club aside with the head on the floor and the shaft upright so the epoxy can cure.
   

The next installment is about grips.

Restoring Irons – 5: Ferrules

Assumptions

I'm assuming you won't be reusing the old ferrules. Most of the times they are damaged and new ones are very cheap. The best thing to do is to replace them with new ones. If you are rebuilding vintage clubs you can buy great looking replica's of various well known models.

Ferrules (taken from eBay listing)

 

Preparation

Before sliding the ferrules up the shafts you must fit them to the width of the hosel. The ferrules are usually made too wide in order to accommodate the varying widths of the different hosels. The ‘professional’ way is to use a ‘buffing’ wheel, but since my French isn’t that good I like to just cut away the part that is too wide with a razor knife. If necessary I’ll grind it straight (by hand).
Alternatively you could just skip the cutting and grind it all the way. I'd advise against using a motorized sander for this as the generated heat could melt the ferrule. Just hold down a piece of sanding paper and move the ferrule back and forth by hand .

 

Installation

Now that you are ready to slide the ferrules up the shafts you should decide on using epoxy or not. From my experience the ferrules will stay in place without epoxy so you should only use it if they slide up the shafts too easily.
First start by measuring how far the ferrule should go up the shaft. You can do this by measuring hosel depth and adding this to ferrule length. Put some tape on the shaft at the calculated position so you know exactly how far to push the ferrule. This is important, because if you push it too far up the shaft it's very difficult to push it back down without damaging the ferrule... Then you’ll be left with an ugly gap between hosel and ferrule.
Push the ferrule up the tip of the shaft by hand until this starts to become difficult. Because we are not using epoxy, we need to get creative. Take a marker and color the part of the shaft between the ferrule and the tape. The ink serves as a kind of lubricant which allows the ferrules to slide up the shaft a little easier.

You can use a block of wood with a hole in it or a metal plate (above) to hammer the ferrules in place.

There are a couple of ways to hammer the ferrule the rest of the way; see the pictures for some examples. The proper way to do it is probably to drill a hole in a block of wood and hammer the ferrules down using the block to protect the ferrule from damaging.
If you want to make absolutely sure that there won't be a gap between the head and the ferrule, you should probably not hammer the ferrule all the way. You should instead place the butt end of the shaft on the floor, slide the head over the tip and hammer the ferrule in position using the weight and momentum of the head. This is a good way to ensure a tight fit between hosel and ferrule.
In the next post I’ll show you how to join the head to the shaft.

Restoring Irons – 4: Head preparation

Assumptions

You have sufficiently abraded the shaft tips.

Cleaning

You should clean the inside of the hosel with sanding paper. Wrap a piece of paper around a screwdriver or something else that fits easily into the hosel and make both back and forth and rotary movements. You want to do this to get rid of any epoxy residue before trying to fit the shaft. Take a good look inside the hosel to see if there are any irregularities that may prevent the shaft from sliding in. Blow out any remaining dust and gently try to insert the new shaft into the hosel. Depending on how far you can push or screw the shaft in you may want to try to use a bit more force to see if that helps. The fit is meant to be very tight so don't expect it to slide in without any effort! In case you trimmed the tip you probably won't be able to push the shaft all the way down.

Note

Should the shaft get stuck in the hosel during fitting then you can get it loose by securing the head in a vice and turn it loose. If you can't get a grip on the shafts with bare hands, try putting on plastic gloves (the ones you used to do the dishes with...) and give it another go.

Boring out the hosel

If you feel the shaft is not going to fit, not even by applying a moderate amount of force, you know it's time to bore out the hosel. There are a couple of ways to do this:

• Use a reamer. This is probably the safest option but since we are only taking away a small amount of steel it may be overkill.
  
• Use sanding paper, spiraled around a drill bit. There are specialized drill bits available for this purpose but a normal bit may work as well.
  
• Use a metal drill bit that is the exact diameter of the wanted size. The danger with this approach is that you can drill out too much if your aim is slightly off. If you go this route you should definitely use a drill press and some sort of vice to hold the head in place.
  
• It's probably safer to start out with a slightly smaller drill bit to see if you can get there by hand drilling using an up and down motion while turning the head by hand. This worked for me.

In the end you'll probably end up using a combination of sanding paper and hand drilling. Remember to recheck the fit after each turn.

In the next installment we'll be discussing ferrules.

Restoring Irons – 3: Shaft Preparation

Shaft Trimming

There are several ways to cut shafts but the cheap and easy way is this: Go to your local hardware store and get yourself a pipe cutter. It won’t cost more than 10 bucks and will last a lifetime. This device has a sharp wheel and adjustable jaw grips for use on pipes varying in thickness. You rotate it around the shaft and repeatedly tighten it until it cuts all of the way through. Faster and easier than a hacksaw and it also produces a cleaner cut.
WARNING: Overdoing the tightening will damage both the wheel and your shaft (longitudinal cracking may occur!) so take your time, be patient and make plenty of rotations around the shaft.

Once the shaft is cut, file away any rough or sharp edges. Especially at the butt end because if you don’t you may end up with damage to your grips (and hands) later on.
Now that you know how to cut the shaft, you need to decide what side(s) you need to cut from, and how much to take off. Butt trimming on taper tip shafts is done to achieve the proper playing length and tip trimming is done to increase stiffness. (The shorter the tip, the stiffer). (note: Parallel tip shafts all have one raw length and are tip trimmed (for playing length), so more trimming is needed as playing lengths become shorter.)
Should you decide to tip trim your shafts, take note that the hosel will need to be rebored. Usually hosels that are meant to receive taper tip shafts are tailor-made to fit uncut shafts as they are thinner due to the tapering… Another way to achieve stiffer flex is hard stepping. Hard stepping is putting a 3 iron shaft in a 2 iron head. (note: Soft stepping is the opposite).

Taper tip shafts with a 1” tip trimmed 7 iron shaft. Note the tip length increasing as the clubs get longer.

 

Abrading

The shiny layer on the chrome finish on the shafts needs to be removed a bit to allow for the epoxy to ‘take’. The fastest way of doing this is by using a belt sander. The alternative is sanding by hand but that takes a lot more time and effort. Measure the depth of the hosel for the shaft you are sanding and mark the the shaft with tape so you know how far up the tip you need to sand. The trick is to slowly and evenly rotate the shaft with your hand as you are sanding. If you don’t do this you might shave off too much on one side which could weaken the shaft. Sand until the shiny layer is gone and you’re left with a rough surface.
 
Next up: Preparing the Heads

Restoring Irons – 2: Shaft Removal

Shaft removal is not a difficult process if you know what to do. 
For instance, most of the older Hogan heads are secured with both epoxy and shaft pins. You can clearly see these pin-holes in the pics below. If the heads have pins, you must get rid of those before you start breaking the epoxy bond. 

 

Pin Removal

To remove the pins, first have a look at the width of the pins on both sides of the hosel. If they don't look exactly similar in width, you probably have a set with one way pins. This means they can only be punched out from the thinner end. Make sure that you hold the punch securely so as not to scratch the chrome near the pin hole during punching. 
Some pins can be a real pain to punch out and may have to be drilled out. The other option is to cut off the shafts half an inch above the hosel and take a screwdriver and hammer the screwdriver down the hosel to break the pin. Once the pin is broken in two, it's usually easier to punch the remains out.
 
Punching out a (one way) shaft pin.

Shaft Removal

Put the shaft in the clamp and put the shaft clamp in a vice. Now take a blow torch and heat the hosel for a couple of minutes. Put on an oven mitt or a heat resistant glove and twist of the head. If it will not come loose, just go ahead and heat up the head some more. Tip: When you start hearing a hissing sound you know the epoxy bond is breaking. You should now have the head and shaft separated.
Put the head in a heat resistant and dust free place so it can cool down.
Put the shaft tip-down against a wall with the tip resting on a piece of newspaper. If there is any epoxy left in the shaft it will have a chance to drip on to the newspaper.

Heating the hosel until the epoxy bond breaks and then the head can be twisted of by hand. (Don’t forget to wear an oven mitt!!)

EDIT: There is a different way of doing this in case heat doesn't help, go here to read all about it.
Next up: Shaft Preparation

Restoring Irons – 1: Materials and Tools

Introduction

This is part one in a series of post in which I will show you how to (re)build a set of irons to your personal specs:
I'll try to describe as best as I can all the steps involved in putting together a set of clubs that are set up just the way you want them.
For about 50% of what you'd normally spend on a new set of 'quality' clubs you can be gaming the set of your dreams! That is including all the tools you'll need along the way.

 

Old Clubs

First thing to do is to find a set of clubs you will be restoring. If possible, try to find a set that has shafts with the same flex you will be putting in later. This is important because of potential differences in weight (and weight distribution) in the heads. If you don't do this you might just end up with swing weight or trajectory problems when you put in the new shafts.

You can find great deals on eBay. With most of the older Hogan sets you simply can't go wrong. The forgings are among the best. Most of the Wilson and MacGregor heads are great as well. I got this set of 1965 Hogan PC5's (2-9 iron) for 25 USD! Shipping and customs costs may add to the expenses but all in all still a great deal for a quality set of blades. 
This set is in average condition, showing some wear and minor rust spots. Still very playable and they still have at least a couple of years of play left in them. 
Of course, if I really like the heads I can have them rechromed by the ironfactory and still come out cheaper than what you would have paid for a new set of blades. 
In case you have bought an incomplete set and wish to complete it ironfinder have very reliable service, fast shipping and lots of choice.

 

- Important -

Make sure you buy a set that fits .355 taper tip shafts. I think the best shafts are taper tipped shafts, but should you want to put in parallel tip shafts you at least have the option of boring out the hosel to fit the wider tip. NEVER buy a set that has aluminium shafts because these clubs typically have light-weight head to compensate for the light-weight shaft. Also, the hosel size (inside diameter) will be bigger due to the wider tip size of the aluminium shafts. 

 

New Shafts

There is so much to say about shafts and shaft technology but that's something for another series of articles.
I'll be mentioning steel shafts only since these are widely regarded as being the shafts that provide the most precise feedback and consistency in irons.
Of course there's shaft flex to consider and shaft type is probably just as important.
In general there are two kinds of shafts: .370 parallel tip shafts and .355 taper tip shafts. The smaller tapered tips are stiffer in the tips and less susceptible to torque or play due to the smaller diameter. This is turn improves shot dispersion and birdie frequency. :)
Something else to take into consideration is shaft weight. For the TrueTemper Dynamic Gold Iron shafts nowadays you can choose between four weight classes (100, 200, 300, 400) e.g. DGIS300 means 'Dynamic Gold Iron Stiff-flex 300', in which 300 is heavier than 200.

DGIX 2-iron shaft above and below that the 3-4-5-6-iron DGIXL shafts which have longer butt ends.

 

Grips

When it comes to grips you have a few options: 

• Rubber/Synthetic grips (Slip-on)
  Most grips these days fall into this category.
  
• Rubber/Synthetic/Compound grips with Cord inlaid (Slip-on)
  These grips usually have a firmer feel to them. Some players like the direct connection to the club.
  
• Leather grips (Wrap-on)
  Leather grips are rare these days and usually quite expensive. John Daly and Retief Goosen are examples of modern day players that use leather. Leather feels very nice and soft but gets very tacky in the rain, providing grip whereas some other grips have a tendency to get slippery when wet.

Grip choice really is a matter of personal preference, availability and price. Some grips are easier to install than others so doing your homework can save you lots of time. For this project I chose Griptec EZgrips because they are cheap and very easy to install. The look and feel is similar to Golf Pride Tour Wraps.

 

Tools

The next part will be about shaft removal.